Like a gunshot, Erika burst across the powder, and Imogen gasped behind me. We both saw the same ghost. Pounding through the sheet of white, her gait had become less precise, almost identical to her brother’s gangly strides. She hastily discarded her boots, mounting her beam in stocking feet, and pride blossomed within me. She was on her way.
Barnes exhaled. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Add it to the list,” I replied. “Now hand over her key, or yours goes down the deepest crevasse I can find.”
He shook his head, as if truly regretting what would follow. “Fortune.”
Fortune sniffed recalcitrantly, not meeting Imogen’s gaze or mine. He unclipped from Barnes and stomped after Erika. “Fortune, no!” Imogen cried. “She was your partner!”
Nonetheless, he reached Erika’s beam and hit it with a powerfulthwack, causing the whole structure to shudder. Erika nearly fell as he drew closer, striking the beam as he walked beside it. He finally stopped just ahead of her, leaning against the beam, a monstrous gatekeeper to bar her progress.
“Can he do this?!” I demanded of Zara.
She threw up her hands guiltily. “Players can always impede another’s progress.”
How could I protect her from Fortune? My mind raced, until…
The apple tree. Balthazar and I throttling each other. All permissible physical contact required by the game, a loophole to make a headbanger. “Zara, are the rules like at the first Trial? Would that be considered ‘impeding’?”
Barnes looked confused, but Zara swelled with satisfaction. “No punching, no choking,” she said with a tight smile, and Imogen immediately released me from my tether.
I raced to where Fortune stood at the middle of Erika’s beam. He raised his hands defensively, but I still rammed into his side. I managed to bring him to the ground but ended up under him in the process.
As Fortune pinned me, I glimpsed Erika above us, warily clinging to the beam on all fours. Barnes seized the opportunity to unclip from Imogen and sprint toward us. He too removed his boots and ascended the course on a different beam, cutting his losses to attempt a crossing while Imogen pursued him. Despite my struggling, Fortune managed to toss me away. I landed roughly in the snow, and he proceeded to throw himself into Erika’s beam, slamming his mammoth torso so hard against it that the whole section snapped. A gap about six feet long now blocked her path, Fortune inserting himself there like an immovable troll.
Summoning what energy I had left, I tackled him again. His sweat and snot dripped on my neck as we crashed down, hopefully buying Erika time. “Jump!” I cried. “You can do it!”
“It’s too far,” she answered. I lost my grip as Fortune rolled over, trying to stand, but I saw an opening and kicked him so hard in his calves he crumpled down.
We had seconds. I rushed to stand, opening my arms to Erika, and she didn’t question it. She leapt to me, and I swiftly ferried her over the gap to the other side. “Go!” I howled.
All impediments gone, she shot across the remainder of her beam in seconds, calling from the end of the obstacle, “Does Barnes still have my key?”
Fortune enveloped me right as I nodded, binding my arms so tightly I almost felt my lungs pounding against my ribs when he began hauling me toward the gate.
Barnes halted on his beam to pull Erika’s key from his snow pants. With a cartoon villain’s flair, he sent it spinning across the snow. “Imogen, I’ll stall! Help her!” I gulped out.
Imogen and Erika both chased after the key, allowing Barnes to briskly finish his beam and stalk over. Despite my thrashing, he unzippedmy jacket pocket and retrieved his key. I squirmed fruitlessly in the knotted shackles of Fortune’s arms as Barnes clipped his carabiner onto my belt, then attached Fortune to his. “I’m not leaving them!” I yelled.
“You don’t have a choice,” Barnes replied. “No safety check. You’re stuck with us.”
“What happened to protecting them?”
“I said I’d protect anyoneattachedto you… Where’s the lie?”
“Barnes,” Zara interrupted grimly. “You can impede, but you can’t render someone physically unable to complete the competition. Leave it.”
Barnes sighed, producing another key from his jacket, its ribbon labeledErika. I was dumbfounded as he blithely dropped it by the gate.
“It seemed wise to grab an extra. Right now they’re hunting Picholine’s key, whoever the fuck that is.” His casual tone belied the wicked twinkle in his eye. “Just like Imogen’s sandcastle in the Turks and Caicos, remember?”
I screamed to Erika and Imogen that they were chasing the wrong key, but the helicopter drowned me out as Fortune hauled me inside.
49
2015
SEASON 20, EPISODE 11:
